Principal, Software Engineering

Principal Software Engineer

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889. Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world's most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world's most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Software Engineer to provide technical leadership and hands-on execution across complex, cloud-native software initiatives. This role combines deep engineering expertise with mentorship, architecture influence, and strong collaboration across global teams. The ideal candidate is passionate about engineering excellence, AI-assisted development, and building high-quality, scalable products using modern development practices.

• Act as a hands-on technical leader, designing, developing, and reviewing high-quality, production-ready software.
• Lead development using Java as the primary language, following clean code, TDD, and spec-driven development principles.
• Drive adoption of AI-assisted development capabilities (e.g., Copilot-style tools, intelligent automation) to improve developer productivity and code quality.
• Influence and review application and solution architecture for scalability, security, performance, and maintainability.
• Partner with architects and senior engineers to define and enforce engineering standards and best practices.

• Design, build, and deploy applications on Microsoft Azure, leveraging cloud-native services.
• Contribute to cloud architecture decisions with a strong understanding of:
  Azure compute, networking, storage, and security;
  Cloud-based databases (SQL & No
  
  SQL) and performance considerations.
• Support and continuously improve Dev Ops pipelines, CI/CD practices, and infrastructure automation.
• Enable resilient, observable, and cost-efficient systems in the cloud.

• Champion Test-Driven Development (TDD) and automated testing at all levels (unit, integration, system).
• Enable and evolve test automation frameworks and practices across teams.
• Closely collaborate with Dev Ops and SRE partners to: improve release reliability and deployment frequency; reduce operational risk and technical debt; strengthen monitoring, alerting, and production readiness.

• Mentor and groom engineers to elevate technical skills, design thinking, and ownership mindset.
• Provide guidance through code reviews, design discussions, and technical deep dives.
• Foster a culture of high engineering standards, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Act as a trusted technical advisor to product, QA, and platform teams.

• Work closely with cross-functional stakeholders including Product, Architecture, QA, and Operations.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Collaborate effectively with globally distributed teams across North America, EMEA, and India, accommodating time-zone overlaps when required.
• Proactively identify risks and propose pragmatic solutions.

• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong hands-on track record.
• Deep expertise in Java and modern application frameworks.
• Strong experience with Azure cloud services and cloud-native application development.
• Solid understanding and practical application of:
  Test-Driven Development (TDD);
  Spec-driven / contract-first development; CI/CD and Dev Ops practices.
• Working knowledge of cloud databases, data modeling, and performance tuning.

• Proven ability to lead by influence rather than authority.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong problem-solving, design, and decision-making abilities.
• Comfortable operating in fast-paced, evolving environments.

• Microsoft Azure Architect Certification (strongly preferred).
• Experience integrating or enabling AI-assisted engineering tools within development workflows.
• Exposure to large-scale modernization, cloud migration, or distributed systems.
• Experience working in regulated or enterprise-grade environments.

• Engineering teams consistently deliver high-quality, secure, and scalable products.
• Robust Dev Ops and automation practices reduce friction and improve time-to-market.
• Engineers grow in capability, confidence, and ownership.
• Architecture decisions balance innovation, stability, and long-term maintainability.
• Global collaboration is effective, respectful, and outcome-driven.

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1,…